Comments on: Shooting fish: Blog Sluts

By: Augie Ray

Augie Ray — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 03:51:20 +0000

David,

I found your blog post right on the money. Like you, I’ve started to unfollow people who are spamming their Twitter and RSS feeds with paid junk that has no authenticity or value.

I wanted you to know that I quoted you in an article I posted to my blog. Since Forrester has come out in support of paid blog posts, I issued a bit of a challenge to Forrester to accept a paid blog post promoting my blog on the Groundswell blog. I was surprised when they responded via a post on the Groundswell blog. Thought you might be interested.

My blog post: http://www.experiencetheblog.com/2009/08/my-paid-blog-post-on-forrester-blog.html

Forrester’s response: http://blogs.forrester.com/groundswell/2009/08/to-augie-ray-thanks-for-the-offer-but-we-dont-take-sponsorships.html

Thanks for the interesting blog post!

By: …words » Sponsored Blog Posts and Google

…words » Sponsored Blog Posts and Google — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 13:38:46 +0000

[...] thinkers including David Churbuck savaged the idea. But here at Forrester we’ve been thinking about it, and we’re ready [...]

By: Ruth Seeley

Ruth Seeley — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 00:03:30 +0000

I finally lost it on December 17, 2008, in my comments on this blog post, after two weeks of watching the controversy hyped, fueled, blogged and tweeted by he-was-so-singled-out-for-doing-a-sponsored-post and his well-meaning but sycophantic followers:

http://www.prworks.ca/2008/12/conversations-arent-markets/

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 00:01:16 +0000

Oh, and here I thought I was alone in being outraged by the phenomenon. I feel SO much better now. I finally lost it on December 17, 2008, in my comments on the blog post linked to below, after two weeks of watching the blog and Twitter hype about the controversy, with the well-meaning offering up oh so many messages of support to the self serving:

http://www.prworks.ca/2008/12/conversations-arent-markets/

By: David Churbuck

David Churbuck — Sat, 17 Jan 2009 02:20:03 +0000

What’s your PayPal account Senor Rage?

By: RageBoy

RageBoy — Sat, 17 Jan 2009 00:47:13 +0000

My offer still stands for any and all marketers — send me money now and I will promise not to write about you later. I’m putting together a little list of those who refuse to comply.

By: Reputation

Reputation — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 13:39:39 +0000

[...] believe that monetization leads to loss of objectivity sooner or later.” He referenced David Charbuck’s post entitled “Shooting Fish: Blog Sluts”. I read David’s post and I think he has polarized the view of bloggers. It’s nice to [...]

By: evan shaw blackerby

evan shaw blackerby — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 00:45:02 +0000

I refuse to put ads on my blog, even thought it could be quite beneficial to me. My blog is for others…. not myself. I use it to guide, teach, learn, etc.

The bloggers who do it completely for money can be spotted easilly. Bloggers can be writers, but most choose not to be.

If I blogged for money or for ad revenue then that could sacrifice my integrity, if I wasn’t careful. It can be done, but at what cost? Would I love to continually build my community of readers? Sure, but only because they find value in what I write.

There is a cost to everything.

By: Paul Chaney

Paul Chaney — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 04:07:30 +0000

“If bloggers are journalists” should read “If bloggers aren’t journalists…” Sorry for the typo.

By: Paul Chaney

Paul Chaney — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 04:06:20 +0000

David, I found you via Peter Kim’s post, It’s Time to Transform.

As to your comments, I couldn’t agree more. Keep editorial and advertorial very distant cousins, if kinfolk at all. It besmirches a blogger’s credibility to take payola, as you call it. To pimp a product simply because one is being paid is a no go so far as I’m concerned, regardless of a)whether they disclose such activity and/or b)write critically about it.

I’m willing to give Chris a pass for one discretion. He is a pusher of limits and an experimenter. Having said that, the argument over pay-per-post is an old one that seems to reappear every few years. There’s little to experiment with in my opinion.

As to the question of whether bloggers are journalists, that’s an old argument too, and I herald your use of the term “writer” instead. Or, perhaps, “blogger” is definition enough.

I suppose one could argue that, if bloggers are journalists in the classic definition, ethical constraints should not apply. And perhaps they are right. Who’s to say. Each person does what is right in their own eyes. I’ve chosen to draw the line on monetization sequestering it to sponsorships and sidebar ads. To bring money into the equation as it applies to the center column is, to quote Captain Hook, “Bad form!”

Again, let’s keep editorial and advertorial separate and apart.